By John Lohn<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE, Australia, March 29. AS the athletes hit the wall for the finish of the championship final of the 100 freestyle, Italy's Filippo Magnini looked to the scoreboard and saw that he had defended his championship. At the same time, Canada's Brent Hayden realized he also claimed a piece of the world title.<\/p>\n
Touching in identical marks of 48.43, Magnini and Hayden shared the gold medal in the two-lap freestyle. For Magnini, the win was an encore to two years ago, when he broke out in Montreal. As for Hayden, the leading figure in the rebirth of Canadian swimming, it was his moment to have the spotlight cast in his direction, even if it had to be slightly shared.<\/p>\n
While Hayden was out in 23.07, Magnini made the turn in 23.24. But, as they came to the wall, not a hundredth of a second could separate the men. The bronze medal went to Australia's Eamon Sullivan, as the rising star from Down Under was timed in 48.47. He was actually ahead of Magnini and Hayden at the 50-meter mark.<\/p>\n
"In the last 15 meters, I was seeing God," Hayden said. "There is always a point where you feel like you have hit the wall and that is what I felt when I was 20 meters out. But I told myself you have come too far not to do this. So I didn't take a breath and put my head down and went as fast as I could." <\/p>\n
The fourth spot went to Brazil's Cesar Cielo, the Auburn star who recently set NCAA records in the 50 and 100 freestyles in short-course yardage races. Cielo clocked 48.51 and was followed by American Jason Lezak (48.52) and the Netherlands' Pieter van den Hoogenband (48.63), the two-time defending Olympic champion. South Africa's Roland Schoeman (48.72) and Ryk Neethling (48.81) were seventh and eighth.<\/p>\n